Kimberly Grice needed a walker during her final month of pregnancy just to get down the hall of her home near Myrtle Beach, S.C., to a freshly painted, lavender nursery.
The 36-year-old struggled to hang up tiny clothes or organize a changing table. She’d been hospitalized this summer with COVID-19 and on a ventilator.
She did not get the vaccine fearing it might hurt the baby. Doctors now want pregnant women to know it is safe.
In September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged expecting mothers to get vaccinated warning complications from COVID can be deadly for both mother and baby. Still, two-thirds of pregnant women have not.
The Grices and another South Carolina family are sharing their stories of pregnancies unvaccinated in hopes of changing minds.
Kimberly was rushed to a crowded emergency room in late July where a six hour wait revealed she had COVID pneumonia. Her husband Tory shares the rest of the journey she can’t remember including the question doctor repeatedly asked in case of complications. Whose life should they save first if something goes wrong, Kimberly’s or the babies?
“What you want to say is like, both of them. But that can’t be the answer,” says Tory.
Kimberly’s liver appeared to be failing when doctors considered an emergency C-section after taking her off a ventilator. But then her health improved, and they decided not to deliver the baby nine weeks early.
